Jeff Joseph
12-27-2002, 05:36 AM
Naushad Mohamed update
I am in New York for a few days. Since one of my prints had arrived from South Africa (to Naushad's friend, Ally Lamaj), I thought I should take advantage of this and go take a look before any more funds are expended on shipping prints to (or from) New York.
I looked at 5 prints that had arrived. Note that I only looked at a couple of reels of each, and just the heads of the reels (no rewinds available).
One was mine: "Star Wars" The print is mag only (no optical track) as Naushad had stated. The print is somewhat pink, as should be expected. Of the 6 reels, several have torn, missing leaders. This is of concern, as there is no way to know how much (if any) footage is missing from the head or tail of the particular reel. Furthermore, several of the cores of film are jammed into the plastic can, damaging part of the film.
All of the 5 prints had this problem; many of the prints aren't on cores at all; they were tightly wound on pencils (the way old trailers are sometimes).
Of much greater concern is the general wear of the prints. "Star Wars" is pretty good (not surprising, as a mag only print would not have been run much). The others, however, are pretty beat. These are very worn prints.
Horror of the Wax Museum Very faded
From Russia With Love British IB Tech, very worn
Busting FujiColor
Satin's Skin Agfa print
Are they worth a few hundred dollars each? Well, "Star Wars" is, I think. Maybe "From Russia" is. The others (in my opinion) are not.
If all of the prints were here in the States, I'd love to go through them, hoping for something valuable. And there may well be something there of worth.
But these old prints have been run... a lot. It's ultimately a judgment call, of course. What's it worth to YOU?
I don't think Naushad is trying to cheat anyone. I think he really has no idea what the material is, the condition, or what it's worth.
I'm having Ally ship "Star Wars" to me. But it is for sure the best print in terms of condition in this lot.
Jeff Joseph
SabuCat Productions
I am in New York for a few days. Since one of my prints had arrived from South Africa (to Naushad's friend, Ally Lamaj), I thought I should take advantage of this and go take a look before any more funds are expended on shipping prints to (or from) New York.
I looked at 5 prints that had arrived. Note that I only looked at a couple of reels of each, and just the heads of the reels (no rewinds available).
One was mine: "Star Wars" The print is mag only (no optical track) as Naushad had stated. The print is somewhat pink, as should be expected. Of the 6 reels, several have torn, missing leaders. This is of concern, as there is no way to know how much (if any) footage is missing from the head or tail of the particular reel. Furthermore, several of the cores of film are jammed into the plastic can, damaging part of the film.
All of the 5 prints had this problem; many of the prints aren't on cores at all; they were tightly wound on pencils (the way old trailers are sometimes).
Of much greater concern is the general wear of the prints. "Star Wars" is pretty good (not surprising, as a mag only print would not have been run much). The others, however, are pretty beat. These are very worn prints.
Horror of the Wax Museum Very faded
From Russia With Love British IB Tech, very worn
Busting FujiColor
Satin's Skin Agfa print
Are they worth a few hundred dollars each? Well, "Star Wars" is, I think. Maybe "From Russia" is. The others (in my opinion) are not.
If all of the prints were here in the States, I'd love to go through them, hoping for something valuable. And there may well be something there of worth.
But these old prints have been run... a lot. It's ultimately a judgment call, of course. What's it worth to YOU?
I don't think Naushad is trying to cheat anyone. I think he really has no idea what the material is, the condition, or what it's worth.
I'm having Ally ship "Star Wars" to me. But it is for sure the best print in terms of condition in this lot.
Jeff Joseph
SabuCat Productions